


fate will always take the reigns (and it wants you and me)

by blushandbooks



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Mutual Pining, This is fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:26:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28259166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blushandbooks/pseuds/blushandbooks
Summary: it's christmas time for the molina's, but a lesson on orpheus and eurydice that julie's english teacher taught right before winter break has started living in julie's mind. logically, she writes a song about it - but irrationally, of course, luke finds it.written for julie and the phantoms secret santa 2020!
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 41
Kudos: 243





	fate will always take the reigns (and it wants you and me)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wisdomofme](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wisdomofme/gifts).



> ahhh merry christmas steph!!! I know I said xmas eve/xmas would be your gift reveal but I finished it and just had to post it. get ready for almost 10K words of juke holiday fluff!!!   
> and anyone reading this, GO READ HER JUKE WRITING!!! IT IS AMAZING!!! follow @wisdomofme on tumblr and read her stuff because it is damn good. i am a huge fan. 
> 
> DISCLAIMER: All of the song lyrics are mine. do not steal them please. :)
> 
> DOUBLE DISCLAIMER: The scene with the ladder... and luke... and julie and the christmas tree.... that is based off of a post from @dahlia-molinas on Tumblr. Girl if you are reading this then you'll know what part you inspired

It’s the last lesson in English before holiday break started: The Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. 

The class is clearly and painfully restless --  _ why did their teacher have to start a new lesson mere days before they were out of school for two weeks? _ \-- and Julie was not exempt from that, doodling in her songbook (gifted to her by Luke after he stole it from a thrift shop) and barely paying any mind to what her teacher was saying. 

That is, until she hears her teacher say one single sentence that pulls her attention back:

“Hades gave Orpheus the following conditions: _ Keep going on  _ the path out of the Underworld, and  _ never look back _ to see if Eurydice is following.”

Julie can’t help it -- her head snaps up so fast that she almost gets whiplash. Her teacher eyes her suspiciously; but doesn’t falter in the lesson. 

The words echo in Julie’s head like a catchy song -- probably because it is a catchy song. A song that she wrote with Luke. A song that, in no way, involved Greek mythology when they wrote it… So what the hell was this? A coincidence?

“Now, this was Orpheus’s only chance at saving Eurydice from Hades. If he failed to bring her back, then she would be damned to the Underworld for eternity. He needed to be strong and trust that his love for her would carry both of them through and bring her back.”

(This is too freaky.)

A thousand memories go through Julie’s buzzing brain: If they never showed up at the Orpheum --  _ (oh my God, Orpheum, Orpheus) _ \-- they would have been gone forever in one way or another. She trusted that the three of them would come, and even in the brief moments that she thought they were gone, she pulled through for them. Because she loved them. 

“Did he bring her back?” The question flies out of her mouth, unprompted and out of turn. She feels her skin prickle with embarrassment, but her teacher handles it well; smile faltering and looking at Julie sympathetically. 

“No. As he’s approaching the exit from the Underworld, he gets overcome with the fear that he’s been tricked, and that Eurydice isn’t following him after all. He turns his head -- barely an inch -- but that’s enough. She gets pulled back into Hades, never to be recovered.”

There’s a foreign, crushing disappointment that floods through Julie at the news. 

(She feels ridiculous. Why does she think that any of this is connected? Her life is crazy enough.)

((But if what happened to them is like the myth… What script are they following? Are the boys doomed to have their souls destroyed at some point? Or have they changed the ending?))

After class, Julie moves like a turtle to pack up her belongings because she wanted to stay behind and question her teacher a little more about the myth. She approaches the desk up front with hesitation, wondering how she can talk about this without, you know, exposing the fact that she’s in a ghost band and in love with the lead guitarist and all that jazz. 

“Hey, Ms. Skylar,” she starts, and her teacher smiles up at her. 

“Hi Julie. What’s up? By the way, I just finished grading your tests on The Great Gatsby, and you did phenomenally. Congratulations.”

_ I had a little help, _ Julie thinks to herself, but smiles widely and continues on her mission. 

“I’m happy to hear that. Thank you. I actually had a question about the Orpheus and Eurydice myth…”

Ms. Skylar stares at her expectantly, waiting for her to continue. 

“Are there any -- I don’t know -- are there any variations of the myth? Where Orpheus actually saves Eurydice? Like how some say that Hera threw Hephaestus off of Mount Olympus, and some say it was Zeus… Or like Persephone and Hades and whether or not he kidnapped her or she went to the Underworld voluntarily, or-”

“I get what you’re asking, but with this particular myth, no. There are a couple discrepancies in it’s retelling here or there, but they all end in the same way. In some retellings, though, the story continues and Orpheus ends up dying to reunite with Eurydice in the Underworld. But that’s the only ending where they’re together.” 

This new addition only conflicts Julie more. So, confused in every way, she excuses herself politely and thanks Ms. Skylar for supplying her with more information (even if it didn’t help). 

When she gets home later that day, she dives for her dream box where she usually stores her songbook. There’s a couple notes from Luke that are a few days old, she thinks, because he has since discovered the art of leaving surprises for her everywhere -- “it’s free real estate,” he tells her with a smirk after Willie had taught him the line minutes before -- but she pushes the treasures aside to dig up her journal. 

The notebook is open on a blank page for a brief moment while Julie fumbles for her purple pen to start writing down the lyrics she’s thought of. It’s not a song she would ever do with the band -- it’s practically another Perfect Harmony -- but she needs to get it out or she won’t be able to focus. 

_ Meeting you was so familiar _

_ Like I knew you in another time _

_ Loving you was easier _

_ Like I’d done it in another life _

_ But maybe I’ve finally learned this time _

_ I couldn’t save you then _

_ I won’t ruin it now _

_ Please just stay behind me _

_ And I won’t ever turn around  _

\----

The song finds itself torn out of her journal and buried at the bottom of her dream box around little poems about fairies and other material that Luke has looked at before. He won’t look there, because he’s already gone through the entire box top to bottom. 

She tries to forget about the whole thing when Christmas break starts. 

“How many ornaments do you guys have?” Reggie exclaims, looking at the boxes that Ray had dug out of the garage. The tree was bare, save for the lights slowly being wrapped around it by Alex and Ray. Luke was next to Julie as she had her calculus journal open, attempting to study; and Carlos stood next to Reggie in anticipation of the cue to rip open the boxes of ornaments. 

“Too many for the tree,” Julie responds, trying not to overreact to Luke’s arm casually falling behind the couch and slightly around her. “We just hang the leftovers on… Literally anything that we can.”

“You guys get everything ready so late,” Luke remarks. His arm dwindles closer to her shoulders.

“Yeah, we delay things a bit, but then we go full speed ahead for the next week.”

To almost emphasize her point, a small ding of a timer is heard ringing in the kitchen. Ray drops the lights in his hands, Alex following suit with confusion. 

“That’s the cookies!” 

_ “Cookies?” _ Reggie, Alex and Carlos say simultaneously. Their attention is now solely focused on the prospect of warm gingerbread as they follow Ray into the kitchen, leaving Luke and Julie on the couch, alone. 

“Why are you even trying to do homework at a time like this?” Luke asks, taking away his arm and getting off of the couch entirely. He jumps onto the ladder that is propped up next to the tree, ready to support whoever is trying to decorate the top half. “It’s Christmas vacation! Fuck your calculus homework!”

Defensive, Julie slams her textbook shut and walks towards Luke. She leans against the side of the ladder, looking up at him with her heart eyes that everyone else can see except for him. 

“And what do you want me to do instead? Hang out with you?”

“Obviously.” The sentiment, while a joke, makes her smile like an absolute idiot. Suddenly, Luke is tapping on her shoulder and gesturing for her to join him on the ladder. “C’mere.”

Hesitant, she does what he says, placing herself on the first step of the ladder. Luke rolls his eyes.

“Up here, Boss. Top step.”

Unknown to him, Julie had never actually gone to the third level of the stepladder before. When she was a child, the whole thing seemed unstable; and so she avoided it at all costs. 

  
But now Luke is guiding his hands down her arms and grabbing her hands and trying to pull her up, and she can’t bring herself to fight it. Finally, she calms under his green eyes and shy smile, and joins him.

“Okay, what are you-”

She’s cut off with her own shrieking as he wraps his hands around her waist and lifts her to sit on the safety bar of the stepladder. It’s a solid three feet above the top step of the ladder, and her butt is barely balancing on it, and her upper body is roughly level with the top of the tree. 

Her only saving grace is Luke’s hands keeping her still on her waist, but those are really only raising her adrenaline and not calming her down. 

“Luke, what are you doing?” Her words are too shaky for her own liking, but Luke can only look at her with admiration. “Luke, I’m serious, why am I-”

“You’re like the tree topper. The star at the top of the tree. ‘Cause… Y’know… You’re a star.”

Julie thinks she dies. 

There are little and beautiful moments that she has with Luke where her urge to kiss him is overwhelming enough to make her completely forget about her surroundings. He’ll pack her bag before school or bring her coffee and ice cream when she’s on her period or he’ll look at her like he would give up music if she asked. 

(She would never, but you get the idea.)

Right now is one of those moments. It’s a new category, where his compliments and praise seem to run her over with the impact of an 18-wheeler. It’s times like these where she would kill to see herself how he sees her. 

His eyes sparkle at her so brightly that she finds herself leaning in, minisculely, barely noticeable. But when her legs lift to hang on his waist and wrap around his back, he shifts closer; allowing his hands to move from her waist to the small of her back. Her fear of balancing on the rail is ever forgotten as she brings her hands up to rest on his upper arms. 

“I bet you say that to all the girls you make a band with,” she says, trying to be flirty. Luke smirks, shrugging his shoulders casually. 

“Eh. None of them have been as talented as you.”

She blushes, she can’t help it. His voice in her ear singing “you’re my brightest burning star” comes up as a memory in her head, and she lets her arms rise to rest on his shoulders. It hardly even hits her how close they are, and the nature of the position that they’re in, when Ray calls out:

“Julie! ¿Quieres unas galletas?”

The shock from hearing her father’s yelling voice temporarily throws her balance off, and Luke scrambles to help Julie off of the railing; both of them stuttering and avoiding the other’s eyes. 

“Yeah Papa!” Julie croaks, surprised at how unstable her voice sounds. “Coming!”

Even though they just almost kissed, and they are both feeling awkward about it; Luke still follows her into the kitchen.

He would follow her anywhere.

\--

The next day, the two of them are writing songs while Willie and Alex go “Christmas shopping” and Reggie and Ray are doing actual Christmas shopping. Completely ignoring what had happened the day before, they sit cuddled on the couch with pages of torn notes and pieces of lyrics scattered around them.

“Do you know anything about Greek Mythology?”

Julie’s question is pretty abrupt, seeing as they were just trying to brainstorm another line to the chorus. Luke, who was gnawing on the cap of the pen in his hand, lets his jaw slack and release the cap from his teeth. 

“Greek mythology? Like… Zeus and incest and stuff?”

A laugh escapes Julie even though she’s trying to lead this awkward conversation. 

“Yeah, but like… Anything deeper than that?”   
  
“Like…?”

(Don’t say Orpheus and Eurydice. Don’t say Orpheus and Eurydice. Don’t say-)

“Orpheus and Eurydice?”   
  


(Goddamnit.)

Luke almost chokes at the names. 

“Gesundheit,” he smirks, “what were you talking about?”

Julie smacks him on the arm with her songbook. 

“You think you’re so funny. It’s fine that you don’t know it, I was just wondering. We talked about it in English before break.”

(And she hates that she brought it up, because she knows that the next thing he says is going to be asking what it’s about-)

“Well what is it? Something that we could write a song about?”

(She already did. Well, part of it.)

“No,” she lies. “It’s this crazy thing. Like you said, Zeus and incest. Basically sums it up.”

Luke leaves her alone about it, because he knows her. If she doesn’t want to talk about it, she won’t. But she brought it up for a reason, he knows that -- he’ll just have to figure it out himself. 

He’s got all of winter break to do it. 

\--

First order of business into his Julie Investigation (Operation Gyro, as Reggie dubbed it -- because gyros are Greek, Greek mythology, it-- You get it) is to look up these two weird people that she asked him about. When Ray is away from the computer, taking Carlos and Julie to go see Tia Victoria, Reggie helps him get into the desktop computer and get to Google. 

**Search:** greek mythology orfeus and uridisy

**_Did You Mean:_** greek mythology _orpheus_ and _eurydice_

The first thing he learns is that, as he suspected, Julie lied to him. Orpheus and Eurydice (whoever they were) had nothing to do with neither Zeus nor incest. They were apparently two people who were in love, and then she died and went to the Greek afterlife or whatever, and Orpheus had tried to save her but he fucked it up. 

That’s what he gets after scanning a random website, but then he dives deeper. 

He reads about how deep their love was for one another, and how the Hades guy was keeping Eurydice there, and how music was a big part of how Orpheus made it into the Underworld in the first place. And he reads about the deal that Orpheus struck with Hades to not look back. 

It takes him a minute to realize that it reminds him of reality. 

While questions are buzzing in his mind about why Julie wouldn’t want to talk to him about this, he moves to the next phase of his plan: Her dream box. 

(Yes, he knows this is an invasion, but he goes in there all the time. And now he’s doing it under official business.)

It takes some digging, but he finds her songbook under pages of doodles and glitter. He holds it like it’s a precious gem -- which to him, it is -- and starts to flip through to find anything, anything, that he knows for a fact that he hasn’t seen. 

It is not long before he finds her unfinished song.

_ Meeting you was so familiar _

_ Like I knew you in another time _

_ Loving you was easier _

_ Like I’d done it in another life _

_ But maybe I’ve finally learned this time _

_ I couldn’t save you then _

_ I won’t ruin it now _

_ Please just stay behind me _

_ And I won’t ever turn around  _

He can tell within seconds that she wrote it about the myth. But his eyes linger on the word “love” during his second scan, which stops him in his tracks -- 

(Is this about him?)

Luke was no stranger to writing random, unfinished love songs. Half of the pages of his songbook had random bursts of inspiration from a five minute conversation with Julie that had left him dizzy. But this… This wasn’t just about him, it was about them. 

The action to retrieve the blue gel pen that she gave him out of his pocket is instinctual, and he starts to scribble some lines of his own below her loopy script. 

_ My soul knew you before I did _

_ And I finally understand how _

_ It took to yours so easily _

_ Like it was home after being shut out _

_ But maybe we can rewrite the story now _

_ You didn’t need to save me then _

_ You’ve done more than I could ever return _

_ But if I need to, I’ll stay behind you _

_ And trust that you won’t let me burn _

\---

Julie finds the continuation in her journal two days later, and smiles down at the words written in Luke’s handwriting. She can read them perfectly -- months of writing with him led to her being practically fluent in his scribbling. 

It doesn’t even occur to her for a moment that he read the song, that he found out what she had been babbling about when she asked him about Greek mythology, and that he wants to finish the song with her. 

(Oh my God. He wants to finish the song with her. He wants to finish the love song with her.)

Asking him about it seems terrifying, and like a conversation that she wouldn’t make it through without confessing to a host of other things.

However, that whole host of other things almost seems destined to come out anyway, after she comes downstairs the day before Christmas Eve to find Reggie and Alex taping a small spring of leaves in the archway from the entryway to the living room. 

“Uh… Guys?”

The two boys freeze. Alex is holding Reggie up, and Reggie’s arms are midair with the tape and the foliage. 

“Hey Julie,” Alex grunts, still trying to support Reggie’s weight. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much…” She says quietly and hesitantly, still suspiciously eyeing the boys’ activity. “What’s up with you two?”   
  
Reggie grunts as he snaps a strand of tape and fastens the small sprig to the archway; Alex practically dropping him not long after.

“We’re putting mistletoe up around the house!”

It doesn’t even quite register with Julie what that means. Her first thought, actually, is how ridiculous it is, but also how she shouldn’t be surprised. 

“May I ask why?”

The questioning, minorly panicked look exchanged between Reggie and Alex does not go unnoticed by her. It only makes her more impatient, and she crosses her arms across her chest while placing her weight on her right leg. 

“Uhhhh…” Reggie draws out, which Alex repeats -- only an octave higher. Julie can’t help but chuckle. 

“We--” Alex starts. “We have our reasons.” 

The fact that they don’t tell her makes the situation even more alarming. They should know that there probably isn’t going to be anyone new in the house who would kiss under the mistletoe, so who in the family would they-

Oh. 

_ Oh, God, kill her now.  _

They’re trying to do it for her and Luke, aren’t they?

“You guys aren’t… Doing that with the intention for anyone to get caught under it… Right? Unless Willie is coming over, Alex?”

Julie thinks she covered up her own freakout pretty well, because her response sends Alex into a bright red frenzy of stuttering. 

“Oh, he’s-- I mean-- He might, if you’ll have him, I didn’t want to-- Uh--”

Reggie jumps in to save his bandmate moments later.

“Well, there’s no one I want to kiss, but is there someone you might want to,” Reggie wiggles his eyebrows suggestively, “meet under the mistletoe?”

(Julie cannot believe Reggie’s nerve today. He knows.)

“No,” she attempts, even though nobody present believes her. “Nobody.”

\--

It’s late that night when Julie decides to indulge herself in a midnight snack of the sugar cookies that her and Reggie and Carlos made on the first night of winter break. It was a shocker that the cookies weren’t all gone already -- but then again, they made like, triple the recipe. 

When her fuzzy-socked foot lands on the hardwoods of the first floor, though, she catches sight of a fluorescent light faintly beaming through the kitchen. 

_ Luke. _

“You hungry too?”

Her voice startles him. The humor in the situation is not lost on either of them -- the first time they met in the kitchen, he was the one scaring her left and right. Now, it’s almost a common occurrence for her to sneak up on him while they both forage for a nighttime meal. 

“I’m always hungry, Jules. Where’re those cookies you guys made a couple days ago?”

“Did you check the vegetable compartment?” Luke looks at her with puppy-dog confusion as she approaches him, positioning herself right next to him in front of the fridge. “Dad always keeps stuff there that he doesn’t want you all to eat in one night.”

“Are you really giving me your dad’s secrets? Now I can just come eat all of the cookies and he’ll know that there’s a traitor in his house.”

The smile that he gives her makes a wish flash in her head of having mistletoe above them right now. 

“Oh well,” she looks up at him, unable to fight the softness in her voice. “It was for a good cause.”

Luke does the lip bite. The proud lip bite, the excited lip bite, the happy-Luke lip bite. She screams internally, and the scream goes on as he kneels down to retrieve the bag of cookies and hold them up in front of her with pride. 

“You do the honors, Boss.”

With a smile that she only seems to get around Luke, she clutches the seal of the bag and tugs it apart. There’s a wide selection of cookies for her to choose from -- and she picks the one with the most frosting that she recalls Carlos decorating. Her and Luke share a wide, greedy smile, and she takes an indulgent bite from the cookie. 

Not even a second later, Luke is pulling the bag towards himself and reaching in to grab a stack of two cookies, which he puts in his mouth on top of each other. The two of them stand next to each other in silence, just enjoying each other’s company and savoring the cookies. 

“You guys killed these, man,” Luke says through a mouthful of crumbs. Julie knows they’re good, everyone else has complimented them already, but hearing it from Luke while he adorably stuffs his face is satisfying to her on a different level. Her heart swells. 

“Thanks,” she hums. The kitchen is still dark, and the moon faintly rains down on them with it’s reflected light as they remain silent. It isn’t an awkward silence -- just a pair of best friends who love each other and won’t admit it, who can feel happy and warm just from the presence of the other. 

Luke, at some point, takes a step to his right (closer to Julie) to reach for the bag of cookies again, and his side just… Completely bumps against hers. And he kind of leaves it there, with the threads of their clothing lightly brushing together. 

With a shred of late-night boldness creeping through her, Julie leans to the left so that her hip is completely against his, as is her upper arm. 

Luke doesn’t move away.

In fact, he pulls her closer. Suddenly, she feels his hand brushing along her waist and resting on the top of her hip, lightly applying pressure, therefore tugging her snug into his side. 

Her heart stutters, but it feels so nice and warm and she is extremely hyper aware of where his hand is burning a hole through her sweatshirt. She doesn’t plan on questioning it, though, so when she reaches for a third cookie, she puts it in her left hand and holds it up higher a few extra inches for it to reach Luke. 

He happily accepts her offer and leans forward to take a bite out of the cookie with a cheeky smile on his face. Julie meets his gaze as she takes her own bite out of the cookie, unable to battle her joy at just… Spending this weird time with him. 

For a moment, she forgets that he knows about the song. 

But she remembers just as fast, and jerks a little at the realization. When Luke feels Julie twitch, he moves away a little, letting his hand slide to her back as he turns towards her. 

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” Julie says way too forcefully. Her eyes widen. “I just remembered that… We probably shouldn’t eat any more so that my dad doesn’t get suspicious.”

Luke doesn’t believe her, she knows, but he nods along anyway. 

“Right,” he whispers. “Can I… Like… Walk you back to your room?”

(Oh my God. It almost feels like a date, and it is way too late in the night for Julie to be forced to do anything rational, and-)

“To the stairs,” she ends up saying. “I don’t want Dad to hear me say goodnight.”

She can see Luke’s minor disappointment, but he recovers it with a cute quirk of his lips and helps her put the cookies back. Once the refrigerator is shut, they walk in slow, small steps side-by-side to the staircase; neither of them truly wanting this time to end. 

Luke is close to inviting himself up to hang out in her room when he catches sight of a small bunch of mistletoe in the archway to the kitchen, right next to the stairs. 

So he stops walking, and Julie does too. 

“Here’s your stop,” he tells her, trying to play nonchalant. As he looks at her, feeling hopeful and like the awkward teenage boy that he is at his core, he can’t help but think of the song she was writing. 

(For him, he hoped.)

“Thanks for keeping me company.” She mumbles, quiet and shy and like a Julie that he only sees once in awhile. 

“I should be saying the same thing.” He pauses, just to look at her a little longer. “Sleep well, Julie. Goodnight.”

Without giving her a chance to properly respond, he steals another glance at the mistletoe, lets his left hand curl around her neck to pull her towards him, and lays a kiss to her cheek like it is the last thing he will ever do. 

He poofs out the moment that his lips pull away from her skin. He doesn’t think he would have been able to stop himself from any more if he looked at her one more time. 

\--

It is now Christmas Eve, and while Julie should be helping wrap gifts or run errands or spending time with the guys, she finds herself staring down at the page with her new song instead. Her handwriting and Luke’s handwriting are disturbingly contrasting. 

The yearning to find Luke and finish the song with him, even after last night -- especially after last night -- tugs at her heart. 

Would it really be so embarrassing to try to have open communication with him?

(Only if it crashes and burns, an insecure voice in her head squeaks. But this is Luke. It’s hard for anything between them to result in a full catastrophe. They always find their way back to each other.)

So, find Luke is exactly what she does. 

Only he isn’t in the garage. Or the kitchen. Or… Anywhere. 

“He’s at his parents’,” Alex finally informs her when she approaches him in the living room. She feels so stupid that she didn’t think about it before, but now that she is, she feels so stupid. And needy. And selfish -- God, so selfish. 

He has a family, and it’s Christmas time, and she wants to hog him to try and have a talk about Greek mythology.

(So stupid.)

With a small self-deprecating joke and a thank you to Alex, Julie finds herself walking out of the front door of her own home and towards the garage, dejected. It is completely empty, thank God, and she is almost tearing up by the time she flops down onto the couch reminiscent of how Luke did on the first night that they meant. 

But she’s still cold. So she goes to the garbage bags, specifically the one she knows is Luke’s, and starts searching. 

A half-sleeved grey sweatshirt wrinkled at the bottom is the result of her successful mission. Tugging it over her head and retreating back to the couch for a second time, Julie allows her mind to run into overdrive. 

_ I miss my mom. I miss Luke. I love Luke. I can’t have Luke. Luke isn’t home. Mom isn’t home. I can’t have Mom. I want to talk to Luke. I want to talk to Mom. I- _

She falls asleep with tear stains on the sweatshirt, and her songbook on the floor next to the couch, opened to the page with the song. 

About an hour later, she is woken up by the continuous feeling of a hand massaging through her hair. It feels nice, so she hums and curls into the person next to her-

(Wait. What?)

There’s a body next to her -- sitting up. It’s right next to her head. It has black jeans tight against its legs and a purple pullover on top, and it is Luke. 

Luke is home. 

When she stirs, Luke’s hand unfortunately stills. Julie turns her head uncomfortably to look up at him, and her heart aches at remembering her thoughts before her nap. He is looking down at her, concerned and loving and she almost cries all over again. Upon a deeper investigation, there’s a songbook in his lap -- her songbook. 

She scoots herself over to be able to properly let her head rest on his thigh, and his hand hesitantly lowers itself back into her curls. 

“Thank you,” she whispers, voice sweet and sad and in love. 

“Are you okay?” Is the response she gets. It makes her sit up fully. 

“I should be asking you that.” She sniffs as her knuckles run across her cheeks, hopefully removing any trace of tears or tear stains. “Alex told me you went to your parents today. How… How was it?”

Luke replaces her knuckles with his own. They brush against her cheek softer than hers, and he shifts closer to her so that he doesn’t have to extend his arm so far to reach her. 

“It was how it always is,” he mumbles. “I left in December. So I felt like I needed to go visit them, especially before Christmas, and… You know.”

Her voice almost feels too weak, so she settles for a nod instead. There’s a considerable effort to move her head slowly so as to not shake his hand from her face, which has settled itself against her cheek. 

“I saw you had the song open,” he continues, clearly wanting to change the subject. His hand drops. Her cheek feels cold. 

“Yeah,” Julie responds, slightly dazed. Her voice is still at a whisper. “I was wondering if you were around so we could work on it.” 

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here.” Luke’s eyebrows knit together, concerned and apologetic, like he did something wrong. Like he is the selfish one instead of her. 

“No, no, what are you talking about? You have nothing to apologize for. That’s ridiculous, Luke.”

“But you’re sad.”

“But-”

“And I wasn’t here.”

“You were visiting your family.”

“You’re my family too, Julie.”

Her arms are uncontrollably sliding around him and fiercely pulling him to her without her brain having the opportunity to actually calculate it. The shirt he has on is warm, which means he is warm by association, which drives her crazy. He’s dead. Warmth shouldn’t be in the cards. 

(But here he is, holding her tight and rubbing his hands up and down her back and Julie might just fall asleep against him if she closes her eyes for too long.)

“I wasn’t sad earlier,” she finds herself saying into his chest. “I was excited. I was excited to work on the song with you.”

“What happened?”

His voice is so level and calm -- she doesn’t know if she’s ever heard it like this before. 

“I don’t know. I felt bad about relying on you being here when you have a life and had a life before all of… This. And then I started thinking about my mom, and how there were times right after she died when I came in here to write and I just wanted her to be around. And then I fell asleep.”

“Was that before or after putting on my sweatshirt?”

It was a beautiful way to lighten the mood without shutting her down. She loves him all the more for it. 

“I came in here after finding out you were at your parents’, then the sweatshirt, and then fell asleep.” 

“Okay,” Luke whispers into her hair. She feels him nodding above her, and she allows herself to peel herself off of his body just slightly so that she can sit up straighter and look him in the eyes. “Do you still… Feel like working on the song?”   
  
Tears rise in her eyes that she has to blink away. 

“Really?”

Luke nods. 

“It’s been an emotional day for me too. Writing with you could do me some good.”

With the sharing of two affectionate smiles, both of them allow themselves to sit up straighter. Julie stays exactly next to him on the couch; their thighs pressed against each other as Luke pulls the discarded songbook back into his lap and hands her the purple pen that was plugged between the pages to mark the song. He pulls his own blue pen out of his back pocket. 

“Do you carry that everywhere?” Julie finds herself saying, suddenly curious about how the blue pen she always writes his parts in has found its way into his permanent possession. 

Luke’s blush does not go by unnoticed. 

“Yeah, I do,” he replies. “It’s convenient, actually. If I need to write something down, my designated pen is right here with me.”

It tingles deep in Julie’s heart the fact that he takes the pen-color thing so seriously. It was just one of those little artsy organization methods she developed for her songwriting, but now it feels like a thing. 

“Now,” Luke continues, breaking her train of thought, “before we go any further, I would really like to hear you tell me about Orpheus and Eurydice.”

Julie can’t help but wince. He’s thought this through. 

“How much do you already know?”

“A lot, actually,” the guitarist shrugs, “but I want to hear you talk about why you feel like it’s so important. To us.”

(God, she loves the thought of them being an us.)

She takes a steady, deep breath before beginning. 

“It just… It’s so weird, isn’t it? How some of the story parallels what happened to us. And when my teacher was telling us about it, she was almost directly quoting  _ Stand Tall, _ and it just… Really freaked me out. Because Orpheus doesn’t bring Eurydice back. Their love isn’t strong enough to save her. Or… He doesn’t trust her enough. However you want to say it, he’s not supposed to succeed. But we did.”   
  
“You brought us back,” Luke allows himself to say suddenly. It’s quiet, but Julie hears it, and she hears the awe in his voice. “You saved us.”

“But what does that mean? Is it good that we changed the ending? Or is it a sign that we’ve seriously screwed up fate or whatever?”

Her mind is whirling with the possibilities, the good, the bad, and the ugly -- but everything shuts down when she feels Luke’s hands wrap around hers. 

The warmth is back. And now, it’s being exchanged from her skin to his and his skin to hers and it feels so right that it is practically scientific. There are calluses on his hands from the guitar that ignite small fires across her fingers and knuckles and palms, and she never wants him to stop. Or pull away. 

“You know Oedipus?” 

That’s the last thing she expected or wanted to hear him say. She doesn’t move her hands, but the mention of the guy who killed his dad and married his mom doesn’t quite fit the vibe.

“Unfortunately… Why?”

“You know how he has this fate predicted for him, but in his attempts to avoid it he ends up walking right into it?” Julie nods, waiting for him to continue. “If you’re worried about fate, remember that it will always happen how it is supposed to no matter what. We can’t change it.”

As much as she hates Oedipus and the fact that Luke had to bring it up now, she feels tension drain from her shoulders at how right he is. Because he’s right. They can’t change what’s been set in stone. Look at what happened to poor old Oedipus. 

“That’s a really good point,” she finally concedes. “You’re right. Whatever we did-”

“Whatever you did, Julie. We’re just along for the ride.”

“-Was supposed to happen. We-”

“You-”

“-Needed to do it.” The realization makes her pause as the urge to cry washes over her. “I- I’m really glad that I’m supposed to be with you.” 

Luke’s hands freeze under hers when she finally understands what she just said. 

“You guys, I mean. You guys.”

“... But this song isn’t about me and the guys, isn’t it? It’s… It’s about me.”

Well. Now she’s caught. 

“Yeah,” is all she says, because if she begins to elaborate she will die of embarrassment and she honestly just needs him to lead the conversation because she doesn’t know where to go now. 

“Julie,” he hesitates, and she has an idea what he’s going to ask but she really hopes he doesn’t. “Do you love me like-”

The door to the garage flies open with the entrance of Carlos. Julie’s heart rate spikes so high that she wonders if Luke could hear it. 

“There you are!” Her little brother exclaims, walking over to her exasperatedly. “Dad and I have been looking everywhere. We made lunch. Tell your ghost you can talk later.”

With a near heartbroken look at Luke -- she doesn’t want to leave, not now, not when things are getting good -- she is met with his small, shy smile that she has discovered is solely reserved for comforting her. He squeezes her hands for good measure. 

“Go eat, okay? We can talk later. I’m not going anywhere.”

She knows with full conviction that he’s right. Slowly and still reluctantly, she stands and starts walking towards the door with Carlos. 

But there’s one score she needs to settle before leaving. 

“Luke?” She calls out, turning to see him still on the couch. She tries to offer a reassuring smile, thinking back to his unfinished question:  _ Do you love me like I love you? _ “Yeah. I do.” 

Just as the realization that she is answering him dawns, she turns around to follow Carlos out of the garage; with a peaceful smile resting on her face. 

\--

It’s finally Christmas morning, and Julie feels four bodies collapse on top of her while she is still in bed. The collision is enough to jolt her awake, and when her eyes flash open, her band and little brother are practically bouncing on top of her bed. 

“Julie, hurry!” Reggie pouts, clearly impatient. 

“Get up! Dad said we can’t open presents without you,” Carlos continues. She knows that her brother can’t see the guys in the room with her, but he can definitely see the way that her mattress is fluctuating underneath all of the weight it’s enduring. Her arm pathetically lifts to swing at Carlos, but she misses; still clearly tired. 

“Traerme café, and then I’ll get up.”

Alex and Reggie poof out of the room, clearly eager to get Julie out of bed, as Carlos sprints out of her room at a nearly matching speed. Luke, unsurprisingly, is the only person to stick around with his hands in his pockets and shifty eyes because  _ is this okay? _

(Very. This is very very okay.)

“Merry Christmas,” is the only thing she can really think of to say. She just woke up, and her curls are threatening to unwind from the twin braids she laced them in last night, and there’s a 101 out of 100 chance that her breath smells bad -- but something deep in her gut tells her that Luke probably doesn’t care. 

(He loves her, in case she forgot. He hasn’t, like, explicitly said… But yesterday was basically a proclamation.)

((Right?!?!?!?))

“Merry Christmas.” He still stands at the foot of her bed, looking like there is a sentence kicking and screaming it’s way up his throat and threatening to come out of his mouth if he makes one wrong move. 

“Are you-”

“I love you.” 

It looks like she made the “wrong move” -- but it definitely wasn’t wrong. 

Julie, in the seconds following his confession, starts to wonder if this is what it felt like to die. She isn’t in pain -- but there’s this feeling that air is suddenly unwilling to blow in and out of her lungs. Her heart throbs with a slow burning fire and it actually kind of does hurt, if she thinks about it, but she craves it now. 

_ She’s burning, but she wants to burn. _

The sensation takes a moment to get used to, but as soon as the fire smolders, it’s as if it has always been there and will be there for a very long time. 

At this realization, a smile grows on her face, and relief finally overcomes Luke. 

“I l-”

Carlos flies into her room with a steaming cup of coffee before she can finish her sentence. 

(If it wasn’t Christmas and he didn’t have coffee, she would have physically kicked him straight out the door and thrown herself on Luke desperately.)   
  
(She contemplates doing the latter anyways, because that might get Carlos out of her room without physical violence.)

((But he would have dropped the coffee. And… You know, the morning breath thing.))

“Okay, here’s your coffee! Reggie and Alex helped. Now  _ come downstairs _ .”

The cup that Carlos firmly plants on Julie’s nightstand is filled with the brown-black coffee. The deep brown, almost-black coffee. 

That means that there’s no cream, and probably no sugar -- exactly how Julie hates it. 

Luke instantly notices the issue after seeing the straight black coffee and the most;y-masked disgust on Julie’s face. Carlos only looks confused, so Luke poofs next to the nightstand and lifts the mug. 

“I’ll take care of it,” he assures Julie, looking down at her with a small smile. The burning heart in her chest beats  _ I love you too. _

She says “thank you” instead. And Luke surprises her by throwing another match on the bonfire in her chest by leaning over to kiss her on the forehead, whispering “I’ll meet you downstairs,” and poofing out with the coffee in tow. 

“Wait, who took the coffee? What did I do wrong?” Carlos asks, almost whiny, and Julie remembers that he was there. 

“Luke did,” she reports, still in a minor love-struck haze. After a few blinks, she is throwing back her comforter and swinging her legs off of the mattress. “I’ll be downstairs in a sec. ‘Kay?”

Her brother eyes her suspiciously, but slowly nods and proceeds to retreat from her bedroom. 

She can finally breathe. 

There is too much going on, it’s Christmas for crying out loud, but Julie already knows that the best gift she is going to receive today is Luke’s “I love you.” 

(She is somehow proven wrong. But we’ll get to that in a minute.)

She unwraps her hair from the braids to let the curls run free, and quickly swishes mouthwash around in her mouth -- for no particular reason.

(Because it’s not like she’s going to grab Luke the second she gets downstairs and start making out with him. But maybe she just wants to, and you should let her have that.)

When she deems herself presentable, she takes the stairs two at a time to meet her family downstairs to open gifts. Judging by the few shreds of wrapping paper on the floor, Julie can tell that her dad already relented to allow Carlos to open one present before Julie joined them.

_ “Julie!” _ Her name is exclaimed by her father, brother, and bandmates. She can’t help but grin so happily that her cheeks already hurt, but she doesn’t care. This picture of her new, grown family is one that she could definitely get used to. 

Luke poofs at her side before she can respond; a cup of coffee, now a milky caramel color, is in his right hand. 

“Hopefully this time it’s better,” he mumbles. Julie allows herself to hold eye contact while she takes her first sip, and his shy smile morphs into a smirk while she chuckles and nods at how sweet the cup is. 

“It’s perfect,” she is quick to reassure him. “Thank you.”

With a lip bite and proud nod, Luke acknowledges her appreciation and their attention is soon taken away by everybody else. 

“Feliz Navidad, mija!” Ray bursts with a plate of pancakes in his hand. He hands her the plate with a joyous smile on his face and a kiss on her forehead. “Did you sleep well?”

Julie nods. 

“Yeah, I’m sorry I took so long to come down… I didn’t leave you guys for too long, right?”   
  
“No,” Ray shakes his head. “Your boys helped me make some breakfast before the rest of you got up.”

_ Her boys _ . She likes the sound of that. 

“Aw, I’m glad,” she looks around at the happy faces surrounding her, at  _ her boys _ . The warmth and pure comfort that she feels in this environment hasn’t properly been felt since… Well, probably before Rose died. 

They’re all doing so well. And it just makes her so, inexplicably happy. 

“While I eat this,” she continues, glancing down at her pancakes, “I wanna see everyone else opening their presents.”

The way that Carlos, Reggie, Luke and Alex practically vibrate at her words does not go unnoticed by Julie. In fact, it makes her even more excited; so when her dad gestures for her to come and sit on the couch, she urgently follows the direction and makes herself comfy. 

Alex is twirling the curled ribbon on the gift in his lap, looking between the present and Julie shyly, like he is waiting for a cue to open it. Carlos is already tearing apart another gift from Ray as Julie nods and gives her drummer an encouraging smile. 

Reggie and Luke watch in anticipation as their bandmate carefully unwraps the gift -- “Alex, you can rip the paper! It’s not going to get used again!” - “I just don’t like ripping it to shreds like an  _ animal _ , okay?!” -- finally reaching the box, and propping it open. 

It’s a brand-new fanny pack -- “so maybe you can switch it up, depending on the day” -- with the hot pink zipper and a little ghost patch ironed onto it. 

Alex stares at it like it’s a shiny new toy. It’s something that feels like it’s been made for him, and it’s been gifted to him by Julie, and he feels valued. 

His arms are thrown around her in less than a second. 

While she recovers from Alex’s powerful hug, Reggie and Luke are cued to open their gifts next -- which they do with significantly less grace than Alex. But the excitement they react with is exactly the same, as they completely smother Julie in their arms and obnoxiously kiss her all over her face. 

Ray can’t see the boys’ reactions, but he sees the joy on Julie’s face as her laugh rings out and she is pushing away at air, and that’s all he needs. 

After breakfast, it’s Julie’s turn to open her gifts: A new set of pens from her brother (that he will steal) and some gift cards and new room decorations from her dad. It’s practically everything that she asked for, and they’re going to figure out where to hang the new painting Ray bought her when Reggie and Alex insist that she come outside to the garage first. 

Julie eyes Luke suspiciously. 

“I got you something different, but I’ll show you later,” he whispers to her. “What they have is really cool though.”

“Just really quick!” Reggie begs her. The puppy-dog eyes coming from all three of her bandmates are enough to make her fold in an instant. 

“Fine, really quick! Let’s go.”

Luke is in charge of placing his hands over her eyes while Reggie and Alex each take one of her hands and guide her across the driveway and to the garage. Her hands are briefly released while the doors are opened, but as soon as they are, she is being pulled along once again. 

“Okay, right here, and-” Alex directs, “look!”

Luke’s hands are removed from her eyes so that she can see the drumset set up in the garage. 

Or, specifically, what is on the drumset. Even moreso, the kick drum head. 

A new cover, reading Julie and the Phantoms, is now adorning the kick drum head, and it’s beautiful. Julie’s name is written in hot pink while the rest of the words are in white, and the background is a clear, starry sky. 

Something about it is beautifully official. They are Julie and the Phantoms. And Julie couldn’t be happier. 

“Oh my God,” she gasps, walking closer to it. “You guys, this is so pretty! How did you do this?”

“Willie helped a lot,” Reggie answers first. “Alex and I had the design ideas, and he helped us draw them out, and a couple sneaky moves here and there and boom! A new kick drum cover.”

“Do- Do you like it?” Alex questions, even though she already said it was pretty. She realizes she has no idea how to put into words the solid elation that she feels over this. 

“Like it doesn’t even cover it, Alex,” she replies. “I don’t even think love covers it. It’s amazing.” Without wasting another second, she runs over to the drummer and the bassist and throws her arms around them in a hug. “Thank you guys.”

“Thank you, Julie,” Alex mumbles into her hair, and she knows what it means, so she holds them tighter. 

\--

Later that night, after dinner, is when the cherry is placed atop the cake. 

Julie is cuddling into the couch with a slice of pie after dinner, as Reggie starts to help Ray with the dishes and Alex is helping Carlos break in a new videogame. Luke, as luck would have it, finds his way next to her; with his arm laying behind her head on the back of the couch and her knees partially draped across his lap. 

Every couple of bites of pie for her, she holds the fork up for him to have a bit too. He’s already had two slices, and this is her own second, but she can tell by the way he’s eyeing it that he wants more. She’s happy to share. 

Julie doesn’t even notice him slide her songbook out from under his leg, accompanied with a small box from his back pocket. 

“Do you want your gifts now?” He nuzzles his nose into her hair and carefully speaks the words into her ear. She has to fight a chill from his proximity. 

Her response is simple: Biting her lip to keep from smiling like an idiot, and nodding. 

First, he slides the songbook into her hands. She already knows what page to turn to. 

“I wrote a chorus,” he informs her as soon as she hits the page. “I didn’t write anything else, because… Y’know, it’s, like… Our song. But I wanted to add a little something more.”

Julie’s fingertips trace the added words:

_ I don’t care what’s in the past _

_ I know where I’m supposed to be _

_ Fate will always take the reigns _

_ And it wants you and me _

_ We’ve both learned from our past mistakes _

_ I’m ready to be free _

_ Because fate will always take the reigns _

_ And it wants you and me _

The sentiment of the lyrics plunges through her heart as she recalls the familiarity of their conversation from the night before. It’s reassuring in a way that she knows will never fade; if she is ever panicking or overthinking about their future, she just needs to remind herself of two lines. 

“It’s perfect,” she hums under her breath. Finally, she manages to look away from the page and up at Luke, whose lip is currently getting chewed on by his teeth from his anxious waiting for her reaction. Her hand, uncontrollably, rises to cup his face. “It’s perfect, Luke. I love it.”

“You do?” She gives him a reassuring nod. He mirrors it as he reaches behind him to the small jewelry box, allowing his right arm to casually fall from the back of the couch to snugly around her shoulders. “Then hopefully part two doesn’t ruin part one.”

Luke rests the box in her hands, and determinedly avoids her eyes as she tries to give him a questioning look. 

“Just open it,” he prompts her. She lifts the lid with hesitation -- but gasps when she sees what’s inside. 

It’s nothing flashy -- a simple thin golden chain, with a little, intricately carved golden butterfly charm in the center. But it’s so beautiful, it even could be an antique, and Julie knows what Luke was shooting for when he got it: He was hoping it might be a part of the set of necklaces that she wears every single day. 

(It will.)

“Oh my God, Luke.” Her voice is steady, but heavy with shock. “This is beautiful. This is so beautiful, where- Where did you get this?”

“Me and the guys were fooling around in the city and found this cool store, and… They distracted the cashier while I swiped it. It was just too perfect, and it reminded me of you and I thought you might like it, but-”

“I don’t like it,” she interrupts him. The joke she’s about to make is so typical, but Luke is so nervous about her reaction that he clearly doesn’t catch on. “I love it, you idiot. I can’t believe you stole it.”

“Well it’s not like I could pay for it!” 

Julie can’t fight her laughter towards his defensive tone. His arm instinctually tightens around her, pulling her closer because her laugh is his favorite sound. Once she calms down, she finds herself gazing up at him once again as he gets distracted by her eyelashes and how perfect they flutter across her eyelids. 

“Could you... Put it on for me?” She tries to ignore how her voice seems to have raised two octaves, but she can’t ignore how the question nearly renders Luke speechless. 

Gulping, he nods his head and gently pulls the box from her fingers to take the necklace out of the box. Julie, automatically, turns her body away from his so that he can lift the necklace over her head and clasp it around her neck. The way that his fingertips run along her skin leaves sparks in their wake, and they linger after the necklace is fastened, and she doesn’t want him to take them off of her skin, ever. 

He does, unfortunately. Followed by a clearing of his throat and sitting on his hands -- she wonders if it’s to keep them from wandering. 

( _ Let them wander, _ an insistent voice in her head screams. She ignores that, too.)

“I love it,” she reassures him once again, and a thought pops into her head that definitely  _ cannot _ be ignored. “I love  _ you _ .” 

Finally, she gets to say it. It’s been weighing on her tongue for hours now, and she knows that he knows, but she needed to let him actually hear it. 

The heat that flashes in his eyes is familiar to her, so she plots a quick escape. He is pulling his hands out from under their legs because he heard the voice too, screaming to let him touch her. 

Grabbing his hand and tugging him along with her, Julie briskly walks into the kitchen and puts her plate next to the shrinking stack of dishes next to the sink. 

“Hey, Papa,” she starts, tightening her hand around Luke’s. “I can take the garbage out.”

“Oh, mija, thank you, but I think we still have some stuff to throw away before bringing it out-”

“It’s getting really full, though. Why don’t I just bring it out and you don’t have to worry about it overflowing or spilling anywhere?”

Julie’s trying to act normal and like there isn’t practically an IV of hormones running through her blood, but subtlety has never been her one of her many talents. Ray eyes her with suspicion, but he nods a few seconds following. 

“Yeah, I guess you can bring some of it outside,” he relents, still clearly knowing that something is up. 

“Great!” Julie perks up immediately, wrangling two plastic bags with her right hand -- the one not occupied by Luke’s -- and almost runs outside. 

After she tosses the bags into the garbage bin, Luke’s hand is impatiently pulling her into the garage. 

And she willingly follows. 

\--

Barely a few minutes later -- it’s not like they had very much time -- she is returning with Luke behind her through the back door. Ray is not hiding the fact that he knows something is happening, and Reggie is pouting in the kitchen with his arms crossed against his chest. 

“I put that mistletoe up for you two, you know! And I don’t appreciate you throwing away my hard work and efforts like this.”

Julie pretends not to hear him, but she catches Luke sticking his tongue out at the bassist, and the smirk that grows on her face couldn’t be defeated even if she tried. Luke’s hand wrapping around hers only makes the smirk grow. 

\--

Later, as they’re lounging on the couch together at midnight, the tree is sparking with the lights turned on as the whole house is silent. They are the only two people awake at this point, and they definitely did that on purpose. 

Julie is playing with Luke’s fingers between her hands when she feels a kiss against her temple. 

“I still think you belong up there,” he whispers into the quiet, gesturing to the top of the tree with his hand that isn’t in hers. Julie’s body shakes against his as she laughs. 

“You’re such a sap. I didn’t expect this from you.”

“Well expect a lot more,” he says, a little louder. “I can’t help it.”

Her response for the time being is a simple hum as she stares at the ridges against his hands with fascination. His words eventually seep in, and burrow deep in her chest where the burning is, and she abruptly reminds him-

“I love you.”

He doesn’t hesitate with his response. 

“I love you too, Jules.”

And as Julie’s right hand wanders to the golden butterfly laying against her skin, she can’t help but feel satisfied that they were able to fully finish their thoughts without any interruptions. 

She falls asleep not long after; more content than ever with his arms around her and holding her for as long as she’ll let them. 

**Author's Note:**

> happy holidays to everyone reading this. I hope you enjoyed reading it like i enjoyed writing it and i want you all to have a lovely winter time!!!


End file.
